Dog Fights and something else I don't remember*

* Don't worry, I'll just make something up.

I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday early morning. I'd had some trouble sleeping that night and I was in bed awake about 3:30 when Athena starts to throw up. The way we usually handle it was we push the choking dog off the bed and onto the floor where they throw up, we clean up and no dirty sheets that need to be cleaned. Well this generation of dogs are different from our first. The first generation Mosha and Kodi were friends and companions. Our current group, Athena, Bandi and Mesha aren't.
We got Athena the first summer the girls were with us in 2010. We went to some place in New Jersey about an hour away because Teri had never had a white dog.(When Teri wants something she always uses the 'I never had...)  and Teri had never

had a white dog, plus it was a rescue. The four of us head down there and when we get there Athena is going to someone else. So we are looking at another dog who is less white, more brown, still the same mix. I took a picture of the dog figuring we are going to get that one. Looking at the picture, I guess the dog was black. We are walking around because the people who picked Athena are having second thoughts. Finally they decide against adopting her. We swoop in and take Athena. I think that was her name from the adoption agency. I sometimes wonder what happened to that other dog. Well we own Athena and we go out to the car. I am taking pictures of the dog and the girls. We start debating her name. I liked Athena because it reminded me of the song by The Who, Athena. For months every time Athena is called I hear in my head, "She's a bomb." *
Now Bandi was a dog adopted by June, Teri's mom in the last couple of years of her life. He was always a very cranky dog. You couldn't pick him up and he'd only accept attention on his own terms. Now over ten years later when I yell at him or

something happens like he wants to sit next to me on the foot stool and I push him off I get hurt eyes from him like how could I . He's decided that I am his buddy.
Now our last dog Mesha, not Mosha was adopted in 2014 just after I lost my job with Cream-O-Land. I didn't want to adopt her and spend $500.00. But Teri said Elena wanted a German Shefford (her accent made it come out that way or maybe she just did know it was a shepherd, I don't remember.). We debated names around. Since I was home most of the time and she looked like a little teddy bear I began calling her Bear. No one liked the name and Nancy looks up on the internet what Bear was in Russian. We didn't like that either, but in all the Russian fairy tales, bears were called Mesha. We thought Mesha, Mosha, maybe the spirit of Mosha would  guide her to follow in her footsteps, didn't happen.

Well we rescue her. She is a cute dog who starts to grow and as she grows she starts to develop an attitude. Bandi never one to be intimidated never lets her dominate him. Even now when she is a hundred pounds and Bandi is about fifteen years old and fifteen pounds she cowers around him. It can be comical. When Mesha gets bigger than Athena she starts to to try to dominate her, Athena is a bit of a wimp so there has been a constant back and forth between them. In other words dog fights. The first one was a bloody affair. I was downstairs in the basement shower and I hear Teri yelling and the sounds of dogs. When I get upstairs there's blood smeared it seems everywhere. Teri's agitated voice saying I don't know who's hurt, but there's blood everywhere. It turns out no one was hurt, Mesha had bitten her own tongue.
I'm not going to talk about every fight, because there have been too many. One I want to talk about is the shock collar fight. After a while we'd gotten tired of the fights and Teri goes out and buys a shock collar. I hated it and refused to use it for a long time. Sometime after I started using it the girls were instructed to use it when the dogs get into a fight. They do and Mesha interrupts the shock as Athena fighting back and when the fight was over Athena was covered in small nicks and scratches. It was the worst fight.
Most of the time I was always the one who seemed to come out the worst. I've had cuts on my arms, my leg and one of my hands. I am always getting in the middle of the fights to grab a collar and pull one dog off the other (Mesha off Athen, Mesha always wins) One time I missed a collar and I saw one of the dogs mouths coming towards my hand (the hand injury). That was an award winning move on my part.
Well back to the fight. It's three-thirty in the morning Teri and I are both trying to push a gagging Athena off the bed. Mesha gets up to see what is going on and we push Athena right into Mesha's face and a fight breaks out. I have learned over the years to use Teri's advise. She said to grab hind legs and pull. So over the last few years I grab Mesha's hind legs and pull or throw her away from the fight. Of course Athena follows and stupid me puts out a leg to stop her (the leg injury) it hasn't stopped me from still doing it In this fight I seperate them and I think they start up again and end up in the hallway. I throw Mesha into the bedroom and Teri slams the door. Things calm down and now it is time for the weird part. Mesha always has to go back over to Athena and check her out. And Athena then proceeds to energetically lick Mesha's face. The longer we keep them apart the more insistent and agitated Mesha become.
The fight is over and now try going back to sleep. Mesha is on the bed with Athena, Teri and I. Finally Mesha leaves and thing calm down and sleep starts to come just as the alarm goes off.



* Athena

The Who

I had no idea how much I need her
In peaceful times I hold her close and I feed her
My heart starts palpitating
When I think my guess was wrong
But I think I'll get alone
She's just a girl
She's a bomb

Athena
All I ever want to do is please her
My life has been so settled
And she's the reason
Just one word from her
And my troubles are long gone
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl
She's a bomb
She's a bomb
Just a girl, just a girl
Just a girl, just a girl
Just a girl, just a girl
She's just a girl

Athena
My heart felt like a shattered glass in an acid bath
I felt like one of those flattened ants
You find on a crazy path
I'd have stopped myself to give her time
She didn't need to ask
Was I a suicidal psychopath
She's just a girl
She's a bomb
She's just…

I guess I didn't remember that other thing.